Tavarez, a true journeyman at this point in his career, had a 4.89 ERA and a 1.74 WHIP in 35 innings with the Nats. He's 35, but a club desperate for bullpen depth might decide to give him a shot. Either that, or he'll end up back at Washington's Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse.

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Nationals signed pitcher Julian Tavarez to a minor league deal. Tavarez, 36 in May, posted a 5.10 ERA, 8.4 K/9, and 4.6 BB/9 in 54.6 innings for the Brewers and Braves last year.

When a 2.93 ERA is considered underperforming, expectations were never reasonable. Anyone else get the impression that if Johan Santana‘s record was 10-3 instead of 7-6, there wouldn’t even be a discussion? Joel Sherman believes the Yankees (if under Brian Cashman) would not go six or seven years to sign C.C. Sabathia in light of the Barry Zito and Santana deals. He wonders whether Sabathia could be lured with a shorter term and higher average annual value.

SUNDAY:The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo writes that Bartolo Colon, a close friend of Julian Tavarez, said Tavarez told him that he would prefer to pitch for the New York Mets. Tavarez was recently DFA’d by the Red Sox and elected free agency rather than accepting an assignment to Triple A Pawtucket.

Tavarez could make sense for the Mets in many roles. Jason Vargas and Matt Wise have been ineffective in limited use, while Mike Pelfrey has been very inconsistent over the first two months of the season. The Mets, however, have yet to indicate whether they have interest in the veteran right-hander. Baseball Prospectus’ John Perrotto has the Orioles and Brewers as the top suitors; I hadn’t heard Baltimore in the mix until now.

Thankfully, the calendar will soon flip to June, and trade rumors will start to heat up. To tide you over until then, here are a few notes from around the league.

Sean McAdam wonders if Manny Ramirez’s current slump will affect the team’s decision to exercise his $20MM option for 2009. Manny sounded rather confident last month that the team would pick it up. And while it’s nearly a given that he’ll recover from this month, the Red Sox could read it as a sign of decline. Still, the chances of the option being picked up are still high.